Counting Silliness

Grant Carrying Kate

The kids were playing upstairs and I heard a huge squeal of delight followed by, "I'm carrying Kate!!"  They came downstairs to demonstrate:

Somehow it turned from this into Kate being a dog.  I heard her angrily tell Grant, "I'm NOT a turtle dog."  I guess they worked it out because at lunch Grant said her lunch was her dog food and she was fine with it.

Legoland!

Legoland has snow around Christmastime, so we decided to check it out this year.  The kids LOVED it.  

The helicopters was one of Kate's favorite rides.  She could barely reach the controls and had to really strain to even get one finger on the joy sticks, but she was determined.

This was our first visit to the Legoland Hotel.  They have a sleeping area for the parents and a separate area for the kids with bunk beds, a TV, and a little game.

They even had a box of Legos for them to play with in the room.

Inside the room, there was a little treasure box.  You had to find the answers to some clues from around the hotel to find out the combination and open the treasure.  Inside, they put a Lego mini figure for each kid, a magazine, and chocolate coins.  Kate kept going back to see if there were more coins in there.  There weren't.

This is in the kids' room area.  

Nate and the excited kids

Downstairs at the hotel, there was a castle and pirate ship they could play in.

Of course, we had to pan for gold.  That's one of their favorite things to do at Legoland.

The snow area was so much fun! 

There was even "snow" falling!  

At the end of the day, we watched the lighting of the Lego Christmas tree.

At bedtime, the kids watched Christmas cartoons till it was lights out.  Each bed had a little light they could turn on and off.  We could hear Kate turning hers on and off over and over again till Grant would tell her to cut it out.

Breakfast at the hotel

Day 2 we did more rides than we did the first day.

Kate was a MUCH better driver this time around.

We had such a great time!  I can't wait to go back again soon!

My Birthday

While I was on the phone with Jill, Grant's tooth fell out.  I love how he looks with his gappy smile!

 Then he helped me fix dinner while Kate was napping.  I've always been really paranoid about him cooking at the stove so I finally let him.  He was a great helper.  We need to cook together more ofter.

 Checking out my birthday cake

Two of my all-time favorite gifts!

Gingerbread Houses

 Grant has a gingerbread competition at his school this coming Tuesday.  We went out this morning to get the rest of the candy we needed to do the decorating.  The kids got to pick out one kind of candy to eat so it was hard to get a good picture while they were eating candy.

Then we went to Rubio's for a little lunch before heading back to our decorating extravaganza.

 This summer, Grant made a plan for his gingerbread display.  He decided to make a beach scene with pretzels on the hut walls, some sort of straw looking roof, sand, water, and a shark in the water.  The house we had purchased to decorate ended up too big and difficult for him to do on his own, so we kept that one as the family house so we could do it the way we wanted.  Then after that, Grant decorated his own display.

 This was the family house.

 This was Grant's scene.

I love the little fire pit Nate included on the side of the house.